New video stokes ACORN controversy
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| San Francisco
The controversy over ACORN shows no signs of abating as another 鈥 this time from Philadelphia 鈥 was released this week as the latest piece of evidence in a bid to discredit the community-organizing group that conservatives charge uses tax dollars to advance a liberal agenda.
As in the five other videos, two young activists pose as a pimp and prostitute and solicit home-buying advice from an employee of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the country鈥檚 largest grass-roots organizers.
Unlike the other videos, which were all shot over the summer and released in September on BigGovernment.com, this video does not explicitly reveal ACORN employees giving the videographers 鈥 James O鈥橩eefe and Hannah Giles 鈥 tips on how to hide their phony prostitution ring from tax regulators and loan officers. But it could still be damaging.
After the controversy broke, ACORN said it fired the employees who were caught on tape dispensing bad advice and took steps to ensure all employees had proper training. The group held up the Philadelphia office (taped around the same time as the others, but not released until now) as an example of how the videos represented the exception at ACORN and not the rule.
In that office, the group said, the two videographers had been asked to leave and Ms. Giles never identified herself as a prostitute.
The Philadelphia video is highly edited, trimmed to roughly 8 minutes from about 30 minutes of footage. It does not show any attempt to shoo Mr. O'Keefe or Giles from the office. The ACORN employee鈥檚 voice is muted, apparently for legal reasons. ACORN has sued the videographers and Mr. Brietbart over the legality of recording someone without their consent.
The video shows that ACORN has 鈥渓ied鈥 throughout the entire controversy, said Breitbart and O鈥橩eefe. They said they may release a fuller version and transcript later.
ACORN鈥檚 reputation and funding have taken a hit as a result of the videos. Congress voted to freeze funding for ACORN, and the US Census Bureau and the IRS have also severed ties with the group.
ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis has acknowledged that the 40-year-old grass-roots group has been mismanaged. The group announced this month that former Attorney General of Massachusetts Scott Harshbarger will conduct his own investigation into the group鈥檚 procedures.
Still, many commentators question the tack taken by ACORN鈥檚 leaders. After Ms. Lewis addressed the National Press Club earlier this month, the Washington Post鈥檚 Dana Milbank that while it was true that the attack on ACORN was 鈥渟tirred up by conservatives and Republican politicians ... Lewis, in playing the victim, is her own worst enemy.鈥
Lewis鈥檚 address to the press club can be seen .
Stu Bykofsky, columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, had an idea for how ACORN should have handled the situation right from the start: 鈥淭hanked O鈥橩eefe and Giles for uncovering wrongdoing and got it fixed right away. When you are caught in a jam, Eagles鈥 bravado isn鈥檛 the answer. Honesty is.鈥
The combination of the video controversy coupled with allegations of voter registration fraud last year has turned the group into something of a lightning rod for conservatives.
The video sting on ACORN is part of a larger campaign against the grass-roots organizers, wrote , a politics professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles, in an opinion piece Thursday for the Los Angeles Times.
"Over the years, ACORN has made powerful enemies," he wrote. "Business groups have funded anti-ACORN websites, such as rottenacorn.com, that aim to destroy the group's credibility. Republicans have long opposed ACORN's success at registering low-income, mostly minority voters, who are more likely to vote for Democrats."
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